novembercamel

1) it’s crowded
2) highways are underground (crazy)
3) roads/intersections are confusing as hell
4) everyone is angry
5) everyone is sociable
6) everyone LOVES THE SOX
7) THE SOX ARE AWESOME Fenway park is pretty cool
9) There are bars everywhere.
10) That is not an understatement. There are bars everywhere
11) The architecture is beautiful here
12) Living is cheap. I’m tempted. Slightly.

This time last week I started on my new consumption habits. It’s been a weird eight days…the theanine (i presume) definitely messed with my sleeping habits. Some days I was exhausted and in bed by 9, some days i was in bed at 2am. Some mornings I couldn’t get up, others I was up at 5~6am and working. I slowed down on my consumption of it around Friday and just boosted my green tea intake, and so far I feel a lot better about my sleep.

The most noticeable thing to happen is that my gums stopped bleeding some time this weekend. The usual swelling has decreased significantly as well. I’d like to think my teeth are somewhat whiter, but I’m sure it’s just optimistic perception.

Hunger has definitely been a weird thing to get used to. It comes and goes at weird times and hours. A cup of water and a few almonds are usually more than sufficient to cure it between meals though, which compared to my previous habit of making an entire sandwich and eating chips with it for a snack, is very gratifying. I fill up faster at dinner and lunch as well, sometimes eating half the amount that I feel I usually would have. Breakfast has been incredibly enjoyable - fruit, eggs and bacon every morning. I wake up hungry and excited to eat. The cod liver oil isn’t bad at all - I’ve figured out I have to take it during the meal and not before to avoid burping up lemony flavors all day. And the magnesium/calcium supplements I just take straight instead of in my coffee.

My digestive system has always been off, as long as I can remember. I’ve tried tons of things, to no avail (Keefer has come the closest to a cure) . For the later half of last week on, though, I have not suffered from stomach aches, nausea, indigestion, heartburn or other gastronomic maladies *cough* that I usually deal with three to four times a week. It’s made me wonder if I had a possible gluten allergy. Doubtful, but something has changed for the better by eliminating processed food, bread, and dairy from my diet.

This weekend I did cheat and had a few drinks on Saturday night. But with barely any sugar added to anything I’ve consumed, the desire for sweet foods has floored out, and having it is painfully obvious to my palate. Also, oddly enough, I’m picking up salt much easier, to the point that vegetables prepared in a way that I’m used to come out almost briny.

All in all, It seems to be working out very well in every aspect. It’s made me pay a lot of attention at what I’m putting in my body, and more importantly, why. I am going to try and maintain the strict regimen for another four or five weeks, then I’m going to go out and order a huge slice of lasagna. Until then though, keep the veggies and meat coming. Here are a few things I’ve discovered this week:

• Ham Sandwich: Two pieces of ham with tomato and mustard in between them (epic…eating this made me feel like a man).
• Beet Leaf Salad: Prepare it just like collard greens, except with beet leaves. I also added dandelion leaves for some extra bitterness.
• Faux Mashed Potatoes: Two Turnips, two medium parsnips, peel them, cube them, boil them, mash them with some butter only. Better than mashed potatoes in my book
• Fish Salad: Any type of wild canned fish (salmon/tuna/herring) tossed with about a teaspoon of mayo, ton of capers, some trader joes hot sauce and some lemon juice. then just fork it.
• Boiled Eggs: I couldn’t believe how helpful it was to keep 2~5 around in a zip lock bag. Great in/on anything, great by themselves.
• Fruit Smoothies: fresh super-ripe strawberries, tons of blueberries, some blackberries, some orange juice, some water. then stick it in the freezer for 30~45 minutes. incredible how perfect it was without any yogurt or extra sugar.
• Vegetable Juices: I have 8oz for lunch and dinner every day. 100% pure, no additives. At first it was not my thing, but I now crave them and enjoy their taste thoroughly.
• Green Tea: 3 cups a day. I make a 3qt pitcher of it and keep it in the fridge for times I don’t want a hot cup of it. It’s the perfect thirst quencher, and supposedly helps concentration (couldn’t stand by that though).

i am continuously amazed how much more readable code is when restricted to 80 characters per line. even when going through poorly written code and adjusting just this one thing, it makes it so much easier to understand.

to add it to it to vim, just put this in your .vimrc file

set tw=80

for giddie’s sake, here’s my entire vimrc file:

set nocompatible ” Don’t force vi compatibility
behave xterm ” Alternative is msqin

“set mouse=a ” mouse support
“set selectmode=mouse ” use mouse to select text
set ai ” auto indenting
set aw ” auto save when compiling
set bs=2 ” Allow backspacing over everything in insert mode
set tw=80 ” limit the width of the text 80 !!! <3
set whichwrap=b,s,<,>,[,] ” end of line cursor support?
set nobackup ” do not create backup files (awesome)
set expandtab ” no tabs in the output file! hurrah
set ruler
set shiftwidth=2 ” What you get for ^D
set tabstop=2 ” Same as shiftwidth
set showmatch

syntax on

i still use nedit. but i’d say it’s moved to maybe 30% of the time. vim is just so hot.

being the reddit/HN sheep that I am, i’ve started a paleo(ish) dietary regimen today.

for lunch i had half a can of wild salmon, half an apple, 8 ounces of 100% carrot juice, a teaspoon of cod liver oil (lemon flavored!), an L-Theanine capsule, and a cup of organic japanese green tea. here’s to a 3:7 ratio of protein to complex carbs, and a 2:1 ratio of omega-3 to omega-6. So long phytics!

here’s to my gum swelling/bleeding going down, an increase in overall energy levels, and a residing of anger/aggression.

here’s the article that caused the uproar: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/03/reversing-tooth-decay.html

i’m not giving up coffee (F that), and do plan to reintroduce dairy into my diet after 6-12 weeks. And luckily sour dough is my favorite kind of bread. The only things that I found on his entry that contradicted with the research I did is that he recommends starchy vegetables, when all other sources explicitly list that as a no-no (including certain types of asparagus and bananas…sigh), and he claims no nuts and beans while almost all others claim nuts and no beans. the one thing I just can’t seem to find in stores is magnesium rich hard water. so instead i had to get a magnesium and calcium supplement for my morning coffee. mmm.